As she prepares to smash her own world record for the deepest female freedive, reporter Crystal Wilde talks to former Bancroft student Sara Campbell to find out what it took to discover her depths.
AS a very un-sporty teenager, Sara Campbell freely admits she was rubbish at tennis, too short for netball and scared of the ball in hockey.
But now 37 and living in Egypt, the world record holder has no problem taking a deep breath and diving up to 100m into the Red Sea, with nothing but her own determination to bring her back to the surface.
In April, Miss Campbell set the women's world record of 96m after shocking the world of freediving by breaking 14 previous bests in her first competitive season.
But the yoga teacher from Almond Avenue, Buckhurst Hill, will next month push herself even further, taking on a Russian woman known as 'the Machine' for the 100m crown.
Risking brain damage, limb spasms and the much-feared lung squeeze - where blood passes into the chest - competitors dive with weights attached to their necks to retrieve a tags from the ocean floor.
Miss Campbell recently returned to her former school in Woodford Green High Road, where she said no one was more surprised than her teachers to learn of her great achievements.
She said: "You should have seem the looks on the sports teachers' faces when I appeared in the staff room to talk about my world records - they couldn't believe it was the same Sara.
"The only sport I was vaguely good at, hardly surprising, was swimming.
"I worked my socks off to get into the B team and came consistently last.
"The highlight of my entire school sports career was coming third rather than forth in an inter-school swimming race."
She added: "I feel so privileged to have gone there and most certainly didn't appreciate it at the time.
"I have very happy memories of Bancroft's, especially of the great teachers and friends and some of the incredible trips we went on.
"The architecture was also something that made a big impression on me.
"To spend all day in such a beautiful building was amazing, though again, probably something I didn't appreciate enough at the time."
Miss Campbell reached the 100m milestone two months ago, but was disqualified from the competition after blacking out when she reached the surface.
Forty years ago, it was thought that humans could not survive at the depths they are now reaching, but Miss Campbell believes she can go as deep as 150m, with meditation as her only additional aid.
She said: "I dive because I love it, not because I was ever massively motivated to set any world records.
"I certainly never imagined I would hold a record in anything, let alone such a beautiful, graceful, amazing sport as freediving."
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